Glad To Be Back

I’ve learned a lot more about my body and what it needs and how I can keep myself in top condition"

Wayne Hennessey

A delighted Wayne Hennessey is keen to get back playing football after a summer of hard toil left him closing in on an end to his injury nightmare.

The Wolves and Wales keeper is back fit again and joining in with pre-season after a first cruciate knee ligament operation last April failed, prompting a re-occurence of the injury after he had returned to action.

The procedure has a small failure rate but now, seven months after the second operation, Hennessey is back feeling confident and itching to make further progress.

"It’s been a while!" said Hennessey, after breaking the news via his Twitter account.

"But now I am just feeling excited and focusing on playing again. I have missed a hell of a lot of football and the last game I played was in the Premier League.

"I would like to get back in and show that Hennessey is back!

"I’ve been getting a load of tweets asking how I was getting on so I wanted to let the fans know that I was fit again.

"I always went on Twitter to try and keep fans updated rather than any other reason and I’ve had some fantastic messages back.

"I need to thank everyone who has worked with me here to help me get back fit and reasonably quickly as well - I’m happy and buzzing again."

Hennessey admits he was feeling fairly low when he sustained the re-occurence of the injury last November, and it has needed him to forego a summer holiday to ensure he was ready to join back in as the players returned on Monday.

But he has no complaints, preferring to focus all his summer energies on his rehabilitation.

"I was low when I got the injury the second time," he admits.

"It’s over seven months now and we have got the leg stronger again and it has had enough time.

"I haven’t had a holiday – I’ve been here at the training ground grafting to make sure I got myself right.

"I’d like to think I’ve done well myself to get back to where I am now.

"When you are injured you are always first in and last out of the building but what was more difficult last season was that things weren’t going our way on the pitch and there was nothing I could do about it.

"As a player here you still feel it when things are going badly even if you aren’t involved.

"I always want the best for the lads who are playing and especially the goalkeepers.

"We’re a close unit and I’ve always been here if anyone has needed anything.

"I’ve been here a long time now as has Carl and we get on really well.

"I was happy to see him playing and doing well and then happy for Dorus when he came in as well.

"Unfortunately it didn’t work out for us last season but hopefully everything will get sorted now and things will improve."

Have the injuries, which have seen Hennessey miss out on a large amount of football, altered his outlook?

"I think I’m a changed person now," he replies.

"You don’t want to be injured especially long term but in some aspects maybe it helped me and I look at things differently now.

"I’ve learned a lot more about my body and what it needs and how I can keep myself in top condition.

"But I’ve also missed a lot of football not just for Wolves but Wales as well.

"Hopefully now I can get back in and start doing what I love doing again which is playing football.

"I’ve missed it all so much, even going away with the lads for away games or on pre-season."

Hennessey meanwhile is confident there will be no mental hangover in terms of worrying about his knee, and is instead focusing purely on continuing his work with the rest of the squad under new Head Coach Kenny Jackett.

"I don’t feel the knee now," he confirms.

"Everything I have been doing in the last bits of my rehabilitation when I’ve been diving around again has been pain free.

"With a couple of weeks good training now hopefully I will get some game time again.

"It’s the sharpness you need to get back.

"For goalkeepers you can pick up training again naturally over a few sessions but the really important thing is game time.

"I imagine it all starts properly again now everyone is back and meeting the new Head Coach this week.

"That’s always an interesting time, finding out what he wants from us and which route he wants the club to take.

"Everyone has come back fit and healthy and we can look forward to kicking on."